Mail box tray

ABSTRACT

IN ABSTRACT, A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THIS INVENTION IS AN OPEN, PARTITIONED MAIL RECEIVING TRAY FOR INSERTION IS RURAL TYPE MAIL BOXES. THE FRONT OF THE TRAY IS FITTED WITH A MAGNET SO THAT THE TRAY WILL BE PULLED PARTIALLY OUT OF THE BOX WHENEVER THE DOOR IS OPENED.

Sept. 1971 J. K. SHANNAHAN MAIL BOX TRAY Filed Sept. 17, 1969 INVENTOR.

WANNAHAN BY 4 M ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,606,140 MAIL BOX TRAY John K. Shannahan, 114 Mike Loop, Jacksonville, N.C. 28540 Filed Sept. 17, 1969, Ser. No. 858,584

Int. Cl. A47g 29/12 U.S. Cl. 232-17 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In abstract, a preferred embodiment of this invention is an open, partitioned mail receiving tray for insertion in rural type mail boxes. The front of the tray is fitted with a magnet so that the tray will be pulled partially out of the box whenever the door is opened.

This invention relates to receptacles and more particularly to slideable receptacles for use in rural type mail boxes.

In the past, various means have been devised for use in mail boxes for receiving letters, packages and the like. Commonly these devices have been slideably mounted with mechanical linkages operatively connecting such devices with the door of the box so that the same would move outwardly as the door opens. These devices, however, have been of limited acceptability first because of rust and dirt build-up in the mechanical linkages, and secondly, the systems are complex and difficult if not impossible to install on standard readily available boxes.

The present invention has been developed after much research and study into the above mentioned problems and is designed to provide a mail receiving tray which prevents letter size mail from being pushed to the back of the box and yet still allow bulky packages to be inserted therein. The present invention also is simply installable in any standard size mail box of the type approved by the Postmaster General and without any mechanical linkage or attachments.

It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to provide a mail receiving tray which is readily installable in any standard size mail box without use of tools and yet will move outwardly as the box door is opened.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a mail receiving tray for insertion into a rural type mail box which prevents normal size mail from being pushed to the rear of the box while still allowing elongated bulky items to be place therein.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a mail receiving tray having clip-on guides to facilitate the sliding longitudinally of such tray within a mail type box.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tray for insertion within a mail box having combination guide means and stops to prevent the tray from being moved outwardly from the box beyond a predetermined point.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a mail box type tray having a magnetic means for attraction to the door of the box so that the tray will move outwardly when such door is open.

Other objects and andvantages of the present invention will become apparent and obvious from a study of the following description and the accompanying drawings which are merely illustrative of the present invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front end view of the mail box tray of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of such tray;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of a standard rural type mail box showing the tray of the present invention inserted therein;

3,606,140 Patented Sept. 20, 1971 FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of such mail box with the door partially open; and

FIG. 5 is a section taken through line 5-5 of FIG. 3.

With further reference to the drawings, a standard size mail box indicated generally at 10 is of the type approved by the Postmaster General to be used as a mail depository on delivery routes. This box typically is composed of side walls 11 and 12 which curve over the top to form a generally inverted U-shaped housing in cross section. An end 13 is attached to the housing by a roll edge construction and a corrugated bottom 14 is fixedly secured both to the end and the sides of the box. A door is pivotably hinged to the lower front edge of sides 11 and 12 and has an inwardly projecting flange about its periphery which is adapted to engage the roll edge portion 16 of box 10 to prevent contents contained within the box from being damaged by the elements. A friction latch composed of box members 17 secured to the top of the mail box housing and an L-shaped latch portion fixedly secured to the door 15 engage each other to hold the door in closed position as seen in FIG. 3. The L-shaped member acts as a handle for the door when it is desired to open the same.

A typical Postmans indicator flag 19 is pivotably mounted so that it can be readily swung from horizontal to vertical position.

The mail receiving tray of the present invention generally at 20 is so sized as to fit within the interior of a regulation size mail box as hereinabove described.

The tray 20 is basically a rectangular shaped open-top box like structure having a bottom portion 21 with side portions 22 and 23 and front and rear end portions 24 and 25 fixed secured about the periphery thereof.

A partition 26 is disposed in parallel alignment with end walls 24 and 25 and rests perpendicular to and adjacent bottom 11. The end portions of this partition butt against the inside of walls 22 and 23 and may be either fixed or adjustably secured thereto. The distance between partition 26 and front wall 24 is preferably at least slightly greater than 9 /2 inches, which is the length of standard full-size envelopes commonly known to stationers as size 10 envelopes. The purpose of this spacing will become more evident from the following description.

A pair of forward guides 27 and a pair of rear guides 28 are provided which may be made of Teflon or other suitable plastic type material having a low friction coefiicient. These guides are mounted on the exterior of side walls 22 and 23 with the first pair preferably being adjacent partition 26 and the second pair adjacent rear wall 25. They may be either simplv secured to the side walls or thev may be in a generally U-shaped so as to clip over such wa s.

Since the roll front portion 16 of the box 10' makes the opening thereinto slightly narrower than across the inside of the box, and further since the tray 20 must be slightly narrower than the rolled edge to slide therebetween, the partition guides on the exterior of the tray allow such tray to slide outwardly through the door opening but will engage the rolled edge to prevent outward movement beyond that point. Thus it can be seen that the forward pair of guides serves the dual purpose of allowing the tray to easily slide inwardly and outwardly through the entrance opening of the box and yet prevent such tray from being inadvertently pulled more than approximately half way out.

On the exterior of front wall 24 of tray 20 is mounted a magnetic retaining frame 29 which loosely retains magnet 30. Because of this loosely mounting of the magnet, it can adapt to varying angularly disposed surfaces with maximum surface attraction.

As is clearly seen in FIG. 5, the overall length from the exterior edge of magnet 30 to rear wall 25 of tray 20 3 equals the interior distance between the closed door 15 and the end 13 of box 10. Because of these equal distances, whenever the box door is closed, magnet 30 will attractingly engage such door either because the door is metal or because a metal plate (not shown) is attached thereto.

In actual use of the improved mail box accessory of the present invention, the tray 20 is inserted in box by either compressing the pairs of guide means inwardly or by slipping the tray in at an angle and then twisting. it to horizontal. If the front guides are of the clip-on type, they may be longitudinally adjusted along their respective side Walls to adjust the distance the tray can be slid outwardly before the roll edge 16 is engaged.

When the door 15 of the mail box is closed, the magnet 30 will, because of its loose mounting, flatly abut and attractingly engage the same. When either the mail patron or the mail delivery man opens the box, the magnet will cause the tray to be pulled outwardly as is clearly seen in FIG. 4. Again due to the loose mounting of the magnet 30, it will stay firmly attached to the door 13 until the angle of the door from vertical becomes so great that the magnet disengages therefrom. At this disengagement point, the tray ordinarily would possess enough momentum to continue sliding outwardly for some distance due to the low friction coefiicient of the tray guides. If the tray moves outwardly far enough, the front pair of guides will engage the rolled edge 16 to limit the outer travel of such tray.

Mail and packages can now be placed in the tray with articles up to full size 9% inch envelopes being placed in the forward section or compartment of the tray for easier access and thus convenience. Longer, bulkier items can be placed in the box so that they rest on partition 26 and extend over the rear compartment of the tray.

As the mail box door 13 is closed, the tray 20 will be pushed back into the box with the magnet 30 again attractingly attached to such door. Thus it can be seen that Whenever mail box is opened, the tray will automatically move outwardly (Without the benefit of mechanical linkages) to expose the contents of the box without having to retrieve various letters and articles from the rear thereof.

Although not specifically shown, the bottom 21 of the tray can be corrugated to prevent articles placed therein from becoming damp should moisture get inside of the box. Also drain holes could be provided to prevent the accumulation of water therein. Likewise the tray could be constructed of either metal or plastic and if desired, the guides could even be integrally molded thereinto. Further guides could be placed on the bottom of the tray to further reduce the friction coefiicient between tray and the box bottom 14. Additionally roller guides or similar means could be provided on the bottom of the tray to even further reduce slide friction.

From the above, it is obvious that the present invention has the advantage of being inexpensive to construct and is readily adaptable to all regulation size rural type mail boxes. Also the present invention has the advantage of saving time in loading and unloading mail boxes as well as making it possible for small children who cannot reach into the rear of a mail box to be able to retrieve mail therefrom.

This invention may, of course, by carried out in other specific ways than those herein set forth without departing from the spirit and essential characteristics of the invention. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive and all changes coming within the meaning and equivalency range are intended to be embraced herein.

What is claimed is:

1. A mail receiving tray for use in a metal, rural type mail box having an outwardly and downwardly swinging door, a bottom, sides, a rear portion and a door frame comprising: a gene-rally rectangular, open top, box like tray so sized as to snugly fit Within said box and be slidably supported by said bottom; a magnet mounted on said tray for automatically releasably connecting said door to said tray when such door is closed whereby said tray will be at least partially pulled from said box when said door is opened but will become disengaged from said door upon its being opened beyond a predetermined point; limit means in the form of projections attached at least one to each side of said tray for engagement with the door frame of said box to limit the outward distance of travel of said tray, said limit means having a low friction coefiicient and being disposed between the sides of said tray and the sides of said mail box whereby said tray may be more easily slideably moved.

2. The device of claim 1 wherein a partition wall is disposed across the tray generally in the center thereof whereby ordinary mail and small packages may be prevented from being pushed to the rear of the box.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the low friction coefficient limit means are at least partially formed from plastic material.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 741,489 10/ 1903 Hamilton 232-20 916,766 3/ 1909 Norgord 232-17 2,665,097 l/ 1954 Shaw 248-128 2,868,444 I/ 1959 Whittier 232-33 3,194,491 7/ l965 Parker 232 -35 FRANCIS K. ZUGEL, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 232-33 

